On the religion side of things, we saw 3 interesting things peacefully existing side by side: Animist caves (for prayer to family spirits); several small, ancient Hindu temples; and Mosques prevalent in all the villages too.

One of my teachers from Inlingua (mbak Dewi) gave me a book on understanding Islam,,, I’m looking forward to digging into that soon. Hindu characters & stories are well known through the traditional Javanese wayang puppet shows, and pop up in a lot of places. And superstitions seem to abound in Java, so even though Animism isn’t an officially sanctioned “religion” per se- it seems to retain a resilient role in Javanese culture.